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I almost didn’t want to take the Xmas tree down at all this year. It was the freshest and longest lasting one we’ve ever had. It still smelled piney everytime I walked into the house. This past weekend was Mulchfest, the annual treecycling effort in New York City and so, time to say goodbye to the tree. Chippers are set up in parks and people bring their Xmas trees to be turned into mulch for the city’s gardens and street trees.

This year, I made a couple of extra trips on my bike to Tompkins Square Park to get mulch for the street trees on my block. This is the second year that I’ve participated in Mulchfest and it feels like it will be an annual tradition that marks the end of the holiday season. Time to start looking at seed catalogs.

the chipper in Tompkins Square Park

bags of pine mulch for the taking

city gardeners

my cargo bike

this year I was careful to not put too much fresh mulch around the bark like my friend Virginia advised.

Like this:

It’s always much more fun to put up the Xmas tree than take it down. It is one of those January chores that I tend to put off. This year I had an official excuse to extend the stay of our beautiful Xmas tree until last weekend when the city held its annual Mulchfest. Xmas trees are collected in parks and chippers are brought in. The trees are churned into mulch for the parks. They also hand out bags of mulch to New Yorkers for their gardens and window boxes and the street trees that so many folks tend to.

heading to the park

Oona’s friend Jackson helped me out with this January project and we walked our tree over to Tompkins Square Park. The smell of Xmas trees engulfed the park and wafted out to the avenues. What a happy smell! We were also treated to a sighting of the resident red-tailed hawk swooping in and around the ancient trees.